Looking at music festival photos, we can’t help but gush about how much fun those revelers must have had. Imagine all those great acts! All those loud cheers! All those raised arms! All those happy smiles!

But if you stop to think about it, music festivals don’t exactly offer the most comfortable experience on the planet. Imagine the scorching heat. The sticky crowd. The standing for hours on end. The lack of a decent restroom with tiled walls and an abundant supply of toilet paper.

Newsflash: the discomfort is part of the music festival appeal! At such a venue, you learn to suck it up, forget your personal space issues, and yes, throw hygiene to the wind. At the end of the day, you can smile a huge, exhausted, and exhilarated grin and tell yourself, “I SURVIVED.”

We’ve rounded up some festival do’s to help you coast through your first-ever Manila Music Festival. We’re thoughtful like that.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. The Manila Music Festival is an hours-long outdoor eargasm that will no doubt leave you sweaty and thirsty. Chug lots of water to keep hydrated. Andto keep your skin refreshed under the sun, there’s always this.

Nourish yourself. When hunger pangs strike, don’t ignore them. Not to worry, there are lots of food and drink booths at the venue to keep your tummy happy.

Slather on sunscreen. You’ll be in the sun for hours, so make sure to apply sunscreen regularly to keep your skin from frying.

Dress comfortably. Stilettos, leather, thick, heavy fabrics, and anything that will make you want to tear your clothes off by mid-afternoon are out of the question. But don’t let that stop you from putting on a fun, festival-friendly costume!

Pack extra clothes. With all the dancing, bouncing, and head-banging on the agenda, you’re bound to break into a massive sweat. We suggest you bring an extra top to change into. Maybe an extra pair of bottoms if you’re that wild.

Use the portalet. As much as you want a clean toilet beneath you when you have to do number one or—heaven forbid—number two, you can’t hold it in forever. Rid yourself of your hygiene reservations and head to the portalets like a trooper.

Make sure your cell phone is fully charged and fully loaded. There’s a chance that you and your pals will lose each other in your mad dash from stage to stage, booth to booth. In such situations, your mobile phone is your best friend.

Have something to sit on. As awesome as it is to feast your eyes on your favorite acts onstage, your legs will feel like jelly after a few hours of standing. Bring a mat, large plastic bags, or even a tent so you can rest those tired limbs.

Be ready with a poncho and Ziplocs. A smart festival-goer is always prepared for the worst. In case of rain, have a poncho on hand, as well as Ziploc bags to stash your gadgets and valuables into.

Bring no more than you need. At a festival, you’ll be walking around with your bag attached to your person, unless you want to leave it on the ground and risk losing it forever. Bring only the essentials so your stuff doesn’t weigh you down.

Prepare enough cash. Besides food and drink stations, there’ll be merchandise booths where you can score shirts and other cool finds. But spend wisely—you don’t want to run out of booze money!

So here's a recap, and a photo you can share. The bare BARE necessities:

There's no stopping the fun now--it's final. A total eargasm is coming to rock your musical world come first of May. And we're giving away 10 tickets to this musical wonderland for free.

Yes, boys and girls. FREE!

Free Manila Music Festival tickets are yours for the taking! Just join any or all of these contests and get a chance to win two tickets to the first ever Manila Music Festival to be held on May 1, 2012 at the Aseana Ave. Alphaland Bay City Grounds in Paranaque City.

Catch local and international musical demigods such as AfrikaBambaataa, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Shinichi Osawa, along with the Philippines’ heavyweights Razorback, Sinosikat, Wilabaliw and Kjwan on a night of pure rhythmic ecstasy.

Contest Mechanics:

The contest will be held via Twitter. All you have to do is make an incredible tweet from 6-10pm tonight (April 26, 2012) with the hash tag "ManilaMusicFest" (#ManilaMusicFest). We will be choosing one lucky winner of 2 MMF tickets for each of these 5 categories. (That's 5 lucky Twitheads and 10 lucky souls who get into the party without having to spend a penny.)

Coolest Tweet Summon all your wit and creativity to come up with the tweet to out-"cool" them all.

Weirdest Tweet They say artists are weird. Unleash the artist in you and try to win those two tickets for the Twithead with the most out-of-this-world post.

So yesterday we put up a random photo up on our facebook page and asked everyone of you to come up with your best and most creative captions. We said we'd pick out one winner and hand over a pair of tickets. Last night we decided, out of the goodness of our hearts (and the sheer fun of going through your zingers) that we'd pick FIVE winners instead.

So, ladies and gents, here are your winners to the FIRST manila music festival photo caption contest (we really like to keep things simple, around here)

Matthew Militar - Spurt of the momentRonie Von Varona - Go outside they said, it will be fun they saidKrystal Roy - The only real fun you can have with gunsColeen Arroyo - Real men fight with water guns...(and wear floral board shorts)..Angelo Santamaria - I took this photo while I was waiting for my kettle to boil

and a special MOST LIKED COMMENT AWARD goes to Ms. Kat Valdez - ‎"Vanquish the battle to beat the heat!" who somehow managed to convince 194 people, in less than 24 hours, to like her entry! Props to you!

one of our representatives will get in touch with you through facebook, on instructions on how to claim your tickets.

oh and THIS:

So share that poster, get the word out! And yes, we are seriously doing this. Tell all your friends! RT! Post! Share! Everything! Let's all just make sure that the first ever Manila Music Festival is one party no one will ever forget.

Every time Sinosikat take the stage at local gig bars, people can’t help but stare. And who can blame them? You’d be blind not to notice frontwoman Kat Agarrado, a petite lady with huge doe eyes, a full mouth, and miles of endless dark hair.

But when the band starts playing, letting loose a bold “orgy of jazz, soul, funk, rock, and sexy groovy beats”, that’s when spectators really sit up and pay attention.

Sinosikat, whose present lineup is also their original one includes Kat Agarrado, Reli de Vera, Nikki Cabardo and Allen Umali, first started making music in 2004. With their Pinoy soul-stamped arrangements matched beat by groovy beat by Kat’s powerful pipes, singles like“Turning My Safety Off” and “So Blue” introduced them as a refreshing departure from the steady stream of straight pop-rock that filled local alternative radio back then.

When Sinosikat released their eponymous debut album in 2007, it became clear that this band was no one-trick pony. Their first record went on to earn them a number of awards, including Vocalist of the Year at the 2007 NU 107 Rock Awards. In 2008, the band took home three honors at the 21st Awit Awards: Best World/Alternative Music, Best Jazz Recording, and People’s Choice Award for Favorite Group.

Sinosikat followed up their debut with the cheekily titled 2nd Albumin 2009. Like its predecessor, the album was critically acclaimed, with the track “Mr. Musikero (Pwede Ba)” winning Best Jazz Recording and Best Arrangement at the 23rd Awit Awards.

Hit play on the videos below and let Sinosikat’s brand of sexy soul lure you in.

Revel in Sinosikat’s deliciously groovy sound orgy at the first-ever Manila Music Festival on May 1 at the Alphaland Bay City, Paranaque City.

For many Pinays with mighty pipes, the goal is to hit recording jackpot in the US. Get signed, release an album, conquer Billboard’s charts—all in the land of milk and honey.

Here’s one Pinay who begs to differ: meet June Marieezy, the Stateside-born Cebuana who is thrilled to be making a name for herself as a soul and hip-hop songstress right here in the Philippines.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, June jetted off to Manila in 2008 and has been in an ongoing love affair with the Philippines since. Finding herself smack-dab in the middle of Manila’s gritty gray landscape obviously did wonders for her creativity: she enrolled in a music production course and has been throwing herself into musical projects, showing no signs of slowing down.

After a stint doing vocals for alternative band Good Morning High Fives, June eventually found her musical groove by mixing soul, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, and rock. This fusion of styles is the sound that is taking her to different stages and places, including theMalasimbo Music & Arts Festival 2012 held in Puerto Galera.

June recently released the EP Heavy Eyes, an urban soul gem under local independent label Deeper Manila. Although she travels back and forth between Dallas and Manila, think of Heavy Eyes as her love letter to our madcap culture, which she is discovering—and loving—more and more with each day she spends here.

Hit play on the videos below to sample some of June’s songs, including her super chill toast to the warm weather months,“Summertime”.

Savor June Marieezy’s smooth and sexy neo-soul jams at the Manila Music Festival on May 1 at the Alphaland Bay City, Paranaque City. Oh, and have we mentioned that she’s hot?

We know, we know: it’s more practical to come to a music festival in the comfiest of clothes. Nobody wants to get all dressed up, only to get the spiffy new outfit that took you hours to pick out desecrated by sweat, grime, mud, or a nasty combination of all of the above. That’s why shapeless T-shirts, plain tank tops, and shorts that have seen better days are de rigueur in such settings.

But lately, more and more brave souls have been showing up at music festivals in costume. In fact, at some festivals such as Bestivaland T in the Park in the UK and Ultra in the US, revelers are encouraged to come in costume to hike up that crazy celebratory mood! Whether it’s a basic creation achieved with yards of cloth and a pair of trusty scissors or an elaborate number that merits its very own float parade, the festival folks in full costume always look like they’re having the most fun in the entire congregation.

For the first-ever Manila Music Festival, that’s exactly the vibe we want to have: that bold, balls-to-the-wall bravado that comes when people aren’t afraid to look ludicrous in the name of fun.

We hereby challenge you, our pioneering Manila Music Festival audience, to show up on May 1 at the Alphaland Bay City incarnival-inspired attire. Let’s show the entire world that Pinoys know how to party in silly style!

Go on and do a search on Google for some carnival-themed costume ideas.

Indio has Coachella, Tennessee has Bonnaroo, Somerset has Glastonbury, Japan has Fuji Rock, Reading and Leeds have, well,Reading and Leeds.

All these places have a festival to call their own, an annual outdoor mecca where thousands of the region’s music lovers congregate, joined by far-flung folks traveling on road or by plane just to revel in the distinct experience each festival offers.

All these festivals make us Pinoys wistful: we wish we had something even remotely that awesome to look forward to year after year.

So why not do it in Manila?

Terrific climate? Say hello to our tropical weather, made even warmer in the summer months. Acres of open land? You’d be surprised how much free space there still is in this big, bustling metro. A guaranteed crowd? Just look at the swarms that flock to concerts and gigs every day. A scream-your-lungs-out, up-for-anything attitude? It’s not even a question.

Enter the Manila Music Festival, the first major music festival of its scope and kind to be staged in Metro Manila, hatched by the same team behind the Malasimbo Music & Arts Festival in Puerto Galera.

Besides giving Pinoy artists a massive venue to conquer and a thousands-strong audience to rock, the Manila Music Festival will serve as a doorway for our music fans to welcome and appreciate novel sounds from abroad, and for outsiders to fly in and discover what the local scene has to offer.

With an impressive mix of nearly 20 local and international acts set to wreck the stages, including American hip-hop trailblazers Afrika Bambaataa and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Japan’s electro-house genius Shinichi Osawa, and local rock greats Razorback, Kjwan, WilaBaliw, and Sinosikat, the first Manila Music Festival looks to be a sign of greater things to come.

On May 1, march to Alphaland Bay City, Paranaque for the first-ever Manila Music Festival! Be seen, be heard, and be counted in this bold new phenomenon in Philippine music.

Today’s bands can learn a thing or ten on resilience from Razorback. After five full-length albums, a number of lineup changes, and a staggering 22 years in the business, Razorback is still here, still at it, still making noise like it was 1995.

Since its humble Led Zeppelin- and Black Sabbath-covering beginnings in 1990, Razorback—now made up of vocalist Kevin Roy, guitarist Tirso Ripoll, bassist Louie Talan, drummer Brian Velasco, and guitarist Manuel Legarda (also of 90s rock contemporaries Wolfgang)—has gone on to take its place in the hallowed halls of OPM as one of the country’s most enduring rock acts.

Razorback started their recording success with the release of debut album Hebigat Sounds Volume Onein 1995, which spawned“Giyang”, a track that still gets sing-alongs and head bangs whenever it is played. In 1997, they released the follow-up Beggar’s Moon, which includes the hits “Ikot ng Mundo” and “Payaso”.

The year 1998 saw Razorback put out another album, Star. The music video for the single “Voodoo, Who Do?” was hailed Rock Video of the Year at the 1999 NU 107 Rock Awards. Two more full-length albums followed: Razorback in 2002 and Three Minutes of Glory in 2011.

Razorback counts among its crew some of the most revered performers in Pinoy rock: Roy, Ripoll, and Talan have all been honored with Rock Awards. Legarda, who joined the band in 2003, has himself bagged two Guitarist of the Year plums with Wolfgang.

No wonder the rock stalwarts were chosen to open for Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Silverchair, and Bon Jovi during these international rock stars’ Manila pitstops.

With so much raw talent in one band, really, how can you expect them to just pack up and fade away?

Hit play on the videos below for a glimpse of Razorback’s generation-defying rock chops:

Bang your heads to Razorback at the first-ever Manila Music Festival, happening on May 1 at the Alphaland Bay City, Paranaque City.

What do you get when hard rock icons Queso, Pinoy soul revivalists Sinosikat, local metal lords Skychurch, and funk-powered four-piece Enemies of Saturn meet at a rager, get along, and end up spending the night together?

The project was dreamed up by bandleader Ian Tayao back when he was still with his former band, Queso. The rock rogue envisioned a group that would throw itself into delivering not just a solid musical performance, but a rollercoaster ride of a show.

In 2010, the pieces of this vision fell into place and WilaBaliw was born, with Tayao on vocals, erstwhile Queso and Skychurch drummer Robert dela Cruz pounding the kit, Francis Magat of Sinosikat and Sound fame on bass, and Enemies of Saturn axeman and blues prodigy Louis Isok on guitars.

WilaBaliw builds on the musical strengths of each of its members, with shades of rock, metal, funk, and reggae coloring their output. And with stage veteran Ian Tayao’s unmatched bravado rounding out the package, a WilaBaliw performance is guaranteed to be one crazy flurry of lights and sounds.

The four-piece released their self-titled debut on the auspicious date of October 10, 2010, to much acclaim from both peers in the rock industry and Queso’s long-time fans.

Hit play on the videos below for a peek into WilaBaliw’s sonic experimentations:

Witness the explosive WilaBaliw at the first-ever Manila Music Festival, happening on May 1 at the Alphaland Bay City, Paranaque City.

Last week, we announced the Manila Music Festival Indie Rock Band Competition, where the victor gets to make Philippine music history by opening the first-ever Manila Music Festival.

After screening all the entries that poured in, we now present to you the five acts that made it through to the finals!

BETHANYBands like Urbandub and Sheila and the Insects have established Cebu as a breeding ground for budding rock talent, and alt-rock group Bethany is poised to join their ranks. The four lads of Bethany (three of them are brothers) look to arena greats U2, Muse, and Coldplay for influence. From their gripping melodies, stadium-sized arrangements, and electric stage presence, you can tell that they’ve learned well.

IVAN THEORYWhen you hear Ivan Theory’s jangly guitar jams, it’s hard to believe that the group actually used to be a power metal band! The four-piece takes elements of indie-pop, rock, blues, and jazz, and mixes them together to create an amiable sonic blend that serves perfectly well as lazy weekend listening. They’ve put out a five-song EP called Inspire, with some of its tracks enjoying airplay on local alternative radio stations.

THE NAMELESS HEROESAlternative four-piece The Nameless Heroes broke into the gig circuit in 2007 while the members were still in their teens. Their youth didn’t stop them from drawing comparisons to the Arctic Monkeys, with their classic rock streaks, punk-rock cacophony, and the vocalist’s Alex Turner-recalling stylings. The band has enjoyed modest success: their single “Room 306” has aired on MTV Philippines, while “Do What You Wanna Do” has landed on local radio station charts.

THE DISCOBALLRemember pop-punk pranksters Kiko Machine? After taking in a steady diet of Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, and Kylie Minogue, three of its members regrouped to form The Discoball. They’ve even coined the term “hypno-dance-rock” to describe their uncanny combo of electronica, disco, and punk. Count on The Discoball’s tight live performances to bring out the foot-tapping, head-bopping, shoulder-shimmying secret dancer in you.

YOLANDA MOONYolanda Moon is a pretty new band. How new? Let’s put it this way: they started a Facebook fan page just last month! Despite their relative inexperience, the group’s rich textures, silky arrangements, and introspective tone, which hearken back to 60s R&B and soul, have already made discerning music lovers sit up and take notice. Names like Ray Lamontagne and Mayer Hawthorne have been bandied around in discussions on Yolanda Moon, and rightly so.

Vote for any of these five fantastic acts via the Manila Music Festival Facebook voting page from April 17-24. The band with the highest number of votes at the end of the voting period (April 24, 2012 22:00 local time) gets to be the first-ever festival opener!